Mother Goose is a favorite in our house. Both my two- and four-year-old girls keep taking out our Mother Goose nursery rhyme books, and can recite their favorites. I’ve realized that nursery rhymes fill each and every day of preschoolers. When putting on shoes, it’s “One shoe on and one shoe off, Diddle Diddle Dumpling my son John.” At the park, it’s “See Saw Margery Daw.” When brushing teeth, it’s “One two buckle my shoe” all the way up to “Nine ten a big fat hen” so I can keep their attention long enough to brush all the top and bottom teeth. When learning to jump into the swimming pool, it’s “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.” At nighttime, it’s “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Wee Willie Winkie.”

We recently discovered Mother Goose Club which has produced some fantastic videos of the classic children’s nursery rhymes. They include lively characters like Jack B. Nimble, Mary Quite Contrary, Little Bo Peep, and Baa Baa Sheep. Their renditions of the nursery rhymes include lively music, engaging singing and dancing, wonderfully creative costumes, and colorful graphics. Their website also includes all the lyrics, printable coloring pages, and some fun activities to do with preschoolers. Mother Goose Club was produced by Sona Jho, a former PBS producer, educator, and mom of three.

Caroline

wo years ago when my closest friend was pregnant with her daughter, another friend and I decided to host her baby shower. It is a recognized fact among all my friends that I am kind of a stickler for details and I don’t really know how to do anything half way (I once spend 4 hours sorting mini colored gobstobbers for an Alice in Wonderland launch party because I didn’t like the way the red and yellow gobstobbers looked with the blue and green). Luckily, my co-host, not only loves good design, but was also endowed with an incredible amount of patience.

We met early on to lay down the ground rules – no cheezy games, no pink and blue baby stuff — we wanted Cheryl’s baby shower to be modern and hip. We were inspired by a recent article in Blueprint Magazine and decided that the theme of the shower would be Modern Tea. We made small finger sandwiches, shopped at thrift stores for mismatched tea cups and spend a few hilarious nights over bottles of wine making tissue paper pom poms and folding origami cranes which we suspended from the ceiling in my living room. All in all, the shower was a success and it is an event I look back on fondly for two girls (my friend and her daughter) that I really love.

INSPIRATION

Modern Baby Shower article in Blueprint Magazine
There are lots of great ideas here. We actually made a version of the mobile to hang over the table.

Beautiful source of inspiration from Thoughtful Day

Luscious Lemon Baby Shower Invites — gorgeous and creative! Via Design Mom

There is lots of beautiful inspiration to be had by theme on Martha Stewart. I particularly like the French Country theme.

La Tartine Gourmande
I love, love, LOVE this site by foodie and photographer Bea. Every time I throw a dinner party, I find a way to work in at least one of her recipes.

For Cheryl’s baby shower we made the Chocolate cupcakes with Lavender Chantilly (I made mini versions with raspberries instead of strawberries on the chantilly) and the Raspberry and Black Sesame Tuiles to complement some of our tea selections (be aware that these need to be made the day of the event or they become soft).

Chicago-based Cake Girls makes the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. I noticed them several years ago when they started making these purse-shaped architectural cakes (amazing). They now have a line of cakes specifically for Baby showers.

In keeping with our theme, we bought our cake from the famed Miette Bakery in San Francisco, which makes beautiful and heavenly cakes.

We found an incredible selection of tea sandwiches on epicurious. For other great places to find creative recipes check Fresh365 and Dana Treat.

We purchased most of the papers for the pompoms, invites, mobiles and other items at PaperSource

Cool wine glass lamp shades by Charles + Marie add ambiance to any table.

Pom poms are easy to make with a little tissue paper and enough time. You can find pretty good instructions on Martha Stewart’s website or if you don’t trust you cutting skills you can buy a kit on Etsy.

A few beautiful baby shower invites from TinyPrints

Minted.com has such beautiful invites that I had trouble picking which ones to feature

I adore the modern design of these baby shower games by Cluster Design.

Brought to you by the creators of Wheels on the Bus (that’s us!), a top educational iPhone app for kids which was featured in The New York Times, USAToday, San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery Channel, Daily Candy Kids, Wired.com and MSNBC.com, we are happy to announce that we have just released our second interactive musical adventure for the iPhone and iPod touch — Old MacDonald!

Get it on the iTunes appStore

More than a year ago the three of us put our heads together and came up with an idea for a musical iPhone app. Caroline and Michael have backgrounds in classical music and so it seemed fitting that we should do something musical. The music for our first (and second) app was recorded by Michael’s trio and by our friend Brennan. The app, Wheels on the Bus, far exceeded our expectations by rising to become the #1 educational app.

Our second app, Old MacDonald, is a unique rendition of the classic song with some new surprises: Pig-casso, a philosopher cow reading “The Moo Yorker”, alien spaceships and mid-century modern furniture (I draw what I wish I had!) Check out the Duck Duck Moose Design website for some more screenshots or get it on the iTunes appStore. If you like it, write us a review — we’d love to hear from you!

efore our younger daughter Christina was born, several people told us that we should have a gift for our older daughter Elizabeth from the baby. Supposedly, this would help the siblings “start out on the right foot” and make the older sister happy that the little baby had a present for her. So, when Elizabeth came to see Christina and me in the hospital, I pulled out a wrapped present with a card that said, “Dear E, Thanks for being a great big sister. Love, C” It was a personalized book — Elizabeth’s Adventures on Sesame Street — featuring a story and photos of Elizabeth partaking in various activities with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe, Grover, etc. The book was a huge hit and it became her favorite bedtime book for at least six months thereafter.

That all happened when Elizabeth was 2-1/2 years old. 16 months later, on the way to school today, she asks me out of the blue, “When was I on Sesame Street?” I answer truthfully, “It is actually just a story. It’s not real. The book just has your picture in it.” She proceeds with her questioning: “How did C come out of your tummy with books?” Hmmm…. she got me there! Of course, in her mind, it made perfect sense that Christina must have had the book in the womb if she brought it for Elizabeth.

Caroline